Dr Haiming Liu is an Associate Professor and a Director of the Centre for Machine Intelligence at the school of Electronics and Computer Science of  University of Southampton, UK. Her research focuses on human-centric interactive multimedia and multimodal information retrieval and access. This interdisciplinary area encompasses fields such as Computer Science, Information Science, Data Science, Information Retrieval, Psychology, Social Science, Biology, Creative Technologies, and the Humanities.

The applications of Dr. Liu’s research are equally multidisciplinary, spanning domains such as E-learning, E-commerce, E-health, E-government, and Digital Humanities. Her work has contributed to designing and developing innovative multimedia and multimodal information seeking and searching systems. She specializes in theory-based user modeling, leveraging interaction data, including bio-sensor data, to enhance user experience and interaction design. Her expertise extends to Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Information Foraging Theory, Emotion Theory, and Cross-Cultural Theory.

Outside of academia, Dr. Liu enjoys running and traveling, particularly sightseeing on foot. She regularly participates in half marathons and marathons and cherishes exploring new countries and cultures. 

Professor Shengdong Zhao is a full professor at the School of Creative Media and the Department of Computer Science at the City University of Hong Kong (CityU). Before joining CityU, he served as an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

Professor Zhao earned his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Toronto and a master’s degree from the School of Information Management & Systems at the University of California, Berkeley. He completed his undergraduate studies with a dual major in Computer Science and Biology at Linfield College in Oregon, USA.

In January 2009, Professor Zhao founded the Synteraction Lab (formerly NUS-HCI Lab), which has been at the forefront of research in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). His research focuses on creating innovative interface tools and applications designed to simplify and enhance everyday life. Among his many achievements is Draco, an application that was recognized as the Best iPad App of the Year in 2016.

Professor Zhao’s work is frequently published in leading HCI conferences and journals, including ToCHI, CHI, UbiComp, CSCW, UIST, and IUI. His dedication to advancing HCI research is reflected in his active participation in program committees for major conferences and his service as the Papers Co-Chair for the ACM SIGCHI conferences in 2019 and 2020.

In addition to his academic accomplishments, Professor Zhao is passionate about bridging the gap between academia and industry. He has served as a senior consultant with the Huawei Consumer Business Group, contributing his expertise to practical applications in the tech industry. Outside of his professional endeavors, Professor Zhao enjoys reading, running, and exploring the beauty of nature.

Ian Oakley is a full professor at the School of Electrical Engineering at KAIST in South Korea, where he directs the Wearable and Interactive Technology (WIT) Lab.

He holds a BSc (Joint Honours First Class) in Computing Science and Psychology and a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Glasgow, UK. 

He has worked in Ireland (MIT MediaLab Europe), Korea (GIST, ETRI, and UNIST), and Portugal (University of Madeira) and spent time as a visiting professor in Korea (KAIST) and the USA (Carnegie Mellon HCII, University of Washington iSchool). 

His research focuses on the design, development, and evaluation of wearable, mobile, and interactive technologies. He has published in leading conferences (such as ACM CHI, ACM UIST, ACM IMWUT, ACM CSCW and ACM TEI) and journals (such as the IJHCS and IEEE Computer). He has 15+ years of experience as a faculty member, with his time split across three continents, and has graduated 7+ Ph.D. students. Finally, he is, although he no longer sounds like it, Scots.

Silang is a final year Computer Engineering undergraduate student at the National University of Singapore (NUS), and a research intern in the Synteraction Lab, under the supervision of Prof. Shengdong Zhao and Prof. Haiming Liu. His research interests lie in the design and engineering of non device-centric computing paradigms, such as AR glasses, to support human-centered multimodal interaction in daily tasks like information retrieval. 

Passionate about interdisciplinary research and collaboration, Silang has participated in and won awards at multiple international hackathons, such as the Huawei Smartglasses Development Bootcamp and the International Building Design Competition 2024, where he worked alongside architects, industrial designers, and engineers to balance arts and analytics in his projects. 

He has published two papers on user interaction behavior with novel messaging and information retrieval systems on AR glasses in IMWUT 2023 and MobileHCI 2024. In addition to his academic pursuits, he is also interested in entrepreneurial endeavors, cinematography, basketball, swimming and music.

Preben Hanson is a Docent and Associate Professor in Human-Computer Interaction and Information Seeking at Stockholm University, Department of Computer and Systems Sciences. He is the Director of Internationalization of Research and Higher Education at DSV. He is also an Honorary Research Fellow at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and Visiting Professor at Peking University. 

He has authored more than 190 academic peer-reviewed articles in international journals and conferences. He has served as conference Chair in around 15 conferences like ACM and iConference. He also serves as the editorial board member: ACM Responsible Computing (ARC), International Journal of Information and Learning Sciences and International and Journal of Data and Information Management (DIM).

His research is focused around and within the intersection of the following research areas:

• Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Interaction Design (ID).

• Information Searching and Seeking behaviour

Dr. Khanh-Duy Le, shortly called Duy Le or Duy, is currently a senior researcher & lecturer (equivalent to Assistant Professor) at the Faculty of Information Technology, University of Science – Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City (VNUHCM). He is the founder and currently leading the Human-Computer Interaction & User Experience research group, the very first of this kind at University of Science as well as in the VNU-HCM system. He is also concurrently Deputy Head of the Intelligent Systems Lab of the faculty. He obtained a PhD degree in human-computer interaction from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. Before that, he completed his Master of Engineering degree specialized in Multimedia from Télécom ParisTech, France. Prior to rejoining academia in Vietnam in mid 2022, he was a research scientist in the User Experience research team of ABB Research in Västerås, Sweden. He also had a time working in the Human-Machine Interface group of Technicolor Research & Innovation, France. His main research interest lies on virtual & mixed reality, collaborative and telepresence systems as well as their applications to address user experience challenges in education, training, healthcare, problem solving and information searching. Besides academic research, he is also strongly pushing for dissemination of HCI research into industry through knowledge and technological transfer collaboration.